Life Lessons Learned from Intervals

It seems like everyday I find myself saying, "This is going to hurt." Pain often presents its self clearly. If you know something is going to hurt then why would you do it? It seems to be a clear contradiction of the hedonic principle (from what I've heard). 

 Lately I've been thinking a lot on my lonely 4-5 hour rides and in between the suffering of my shorter more specific rides. It occurred to me that possibly one can ignore pain when in search of pleasure. It seems like a reasonable conclusion to me. Why would anyone torture themselves with 1.5 hr big gear interval. It really hurts... The answer is that scene you play through in your head a thousand times; your hand lifted in victory. It hurts so good. 

In life in general why would you ever take a chance?  Once again, its clear that sometime down the line its going to hurt. Still, the answer is the same as before. These risks taken are the things that tend to define a person and a life. Just a thought or a few.